Monthly Archives: November 2011

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1135 – DEATH OF KING HENRY I OF ENGLANDAbout 1100, King Henry, short on gold money, created a unique form of government issued money – Tally Sticks. These sticks were just that – polished pieces or sticks of wood with notches of a certain size to indicated the value of the wood. They were declared by the King as money and issued for purchases. They were accepted by the King for payment of taxes. Tally Sticks was an accepted debt-free government-issued money system of England for over 700 years, including the period of the rise of the British Empire. At is peak, about 95% of all money in England was in the form of Tally Sticks.

DECEMBER 4

1975 – DEATH OF GRAHAM TOWERS, GOVERNOR, BANK OF CANADA, 1934-54“Each and every time a bank makes a loan, new bank credit is created – new deposits – brand new money.”

NOTE: Due to the shortness of this week’s calendar, this may be an appropriate moment to invite you to share your thoughts about monetary policy/democratizing money with others. Forward this calendar (an earlier version with more entries might be more interesting) to your email list, write a letter to the editor incorporating information or a quote from previous entries, post the link to the running calendar (link below) on your Facebook page or via email, or talk about it to a friend. Change will only happen when we engage others and awareness reaches a tipping point. Below is an effort toward the letter to the editor end connecting monetary policy with the recently imploded Super Committee fiasco.

Since Democrats and Republicans on the congressional supercommittee, including Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, were unable to find common ground on spending reductions and tax increases to reduce the debt, Congress should now focus on an arena where both Democrats and Republicans might agree — monetary reform.

Passage of the National Emergency Employment Defense (NEED) Act, H.R. 2990, would eliminate the national debt by authorizing the government to print U.S. dollars (different from the Federal Reserve notes in our wallets) to pay off U.S. Treasury bonds, bills and notes.

Virtually all of our nation’s money is currently created by banking corporations as debt to people, businesses and governments, to be paid back with interest that over time often becomes an inflationary debt trap.

Democratic Presidents Jefferson and Jackson felt the people, not banks, should create our own money, while Republican President Lincoln created debt-free public money (greenbacks) in an effort to preserve the Union. The U.S. Constitution empowers the government to coin money.

Canadian economist William Hixson has said, “The very idea of a government that can create money for itself, allowing banks to create money that the government then borrows, and pays interest on, is so preposterous that it staggers the imagination.”

Congressional passage of the NEED Act would create a policy most people believe has existed since the nation’s founding — creation and issuance of U.S. money — which is both progressive and conservative.

————-Why this calendar? Many people have questions about the root causes of our economic problems. Some questions involve money, banks and debt. How is money created? Why do banks control its quantity? How has the money system been used to liberate (not often) and oppress (most often) us? And how can the money system be “democratized” to rebuild our economy and society, create jobs and reduce debt?Our goal is to inform, intrigue and inspire through bite size weekly postings listing important events and quotes from prominent individuals (both past and present) on money, banking and how the money system can help people and the planet. We hope the sharing of bits of buried history will illuminate monetary and banking issues and empower you with others to create real economic and political justice.This calendar is a project of the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee. Adele Looney, Phyllis Titus, Donna Schall, Leah Davis, Alice Francini and Greg Coleridge helped in its development.Please forward this to others and encourage them to subscribe. To subscribe/unsubscribe or to comment on any entry, contact monetarycalendar@yahoo.com For more information, visit http://www.afsc.net/economiccrisis.html. Previous calendar entries are posted at http://afsc.net/monetaryhistorycalendar.html

Move to Amend has led the call for a Constitutional amendment to not only overturn the heinous Supreme Court decision of Citizens United v. FEC, but to put corporations in their proper place as subservient to The People.

Passing an amendment will be a tough job, so the language must be commensurate with the effort needed to win. The amendment must be strong and clear enough to end corporate rule – there’s no room here for half solutions or ambiguity.

Move to Amend’s proposed amendment will clearly establish that money is not speech, corporations are not people, and allows for no loopholes. Our amendment will put people in charge of our government, and corporations in their proper place.

We’ve spent the last two years listening and organizing at the grassroots level. Our amendment reflects what we have heard from Americans across the nation – our country is ready for a change that is bold and sweeping.

But is Congress ready?

It is our belief that we need to operate on the assumption that once an Amendment comes out of Congress we won’t get another shot. So we MUST get it right!

In the months ahead it will be important that we not let our goals be diluted by our legislators in Washington or organizations who have their ear, even those that mean well and want to see reform in our political system.

You’ve probably heard by now about the flurry of amendments introduced in Washington, DC in the past month.

With many competing proposals, it can be confusing to figure out what is what in terms of what the proposals will actually do. We have prepared a summary of each of the amendments proposed, including what is missing from each one

In the weeks to come we will be sharing our strategy to win our bold and yet common sense amendment . We know we still have a long way to go, but the tide is turning in this country and Move to Amend intends to ride it to victory.

We thank you for coming this far with us already, and we urge you to take a next step:

Move to Amend is a grassroots organization. Local Move to Amend Affiliates are spreading across the country. Is it time to start one in your community?

Occupy the Courts, Liberate the Law! is our call to action on January 20 for the second anniversary of the Citizens United decision. Communities across the nation are joining in, including folks at Occupy Wall Street and several other Occupy sites. Will you stand with us on January 20?

Move to Amend and several partner organizations hosted over 200 house parties across the nation last month to plan local action in 2012. The next round of these meetings will be the week of December 13. Will you host a gathering of your friends to take action?

Move to Amend is in it to win it, over the long haul. We know you are too. Thank you for your support, and your partnership.

Richard Grossman passed away on Tuesday, November 22. The movement we know today to end never-intended constitutional rights for corporations as a step toward real self-governance was birthed, grew and developed to a great extent by this remarkable, complex human being with a deep passion and love for nature, humanity and justice. He influenced and inspired thousands directly, an incalculable number more indirectly.

Richard and Ward Morehouse started the Program on Corporations, Law & Democracy (POCLAD) in 1994, a combined think tank and breeding ground for activist experimentation to challenge corporate rule.

His work in this field originated with the publication of Taking Care of Business: Citizenship and the Charter of Incorporation, which he co-authored with Frank Adams in 1993.

Richard reveled in reading, thinking, writing and discussing on what had been for more than a century buried history and analysis on how corporations (creations of the state) came to acquire power and rights that were presented by the culture as inevitable and irreversible. POCLAD semi-annual retreats among the dozen collective “principles” were serious extended weekends in “grappling” and “rethinking” the relationship between people and our own legal creations — conveying that the ultimate inhibitor to self-governance weren’t corporations but us — what we’ve come to accept and what we’re willing to do. He dug deep in history, law and scholars that most people in the present had never heard of and/or who seemed quaint or arcane.

Richard was rigorous and demanded the same from everyone who took ending corporate rights seriously. He challenged as well as supported. He demanded as well as suggested. He knocked our ideas and conceptions down as well as worked collaboratively to build up others. He was uncompromising on core concepts but engaged in genuine give and take that helped him evolve from primarily advocating revoking individual corporate charters, to ending corporate constitutional rights (personhood) at the national level, to asserting democratic “right to decide” control over corporations through municipal ordinances, to criminalizing chartered incorporated business entities. You didn’t always agree with Richard but you were always mentally stretched and challenged to defend your unconsciously accepted doctrines.

I first ran into Richard when he and fellow “POCLADista” Jane Anne Morris came to Ohio to lead a weekend “Rethinking Corporations, Rethinking Democracy” in 1995 — one of scores of intentional in-depth retreats to unlearn our “myths and lore” regarding governance that he helped facilitate. It was a personal awakening. Though I had gone to what was considered a pretty radical college (Oberlin) and grew up with a father who was involved in the formation of the labor movement (United Rubber Workers in Akron), I had learned nothing in either venue about what Richard and Jane Anne had “unearthed.”

At the end of the “Rethink,” Richard challenged us to do our own “unearthing,” to dig into Ohio history and law — since corporations historically received their charter from states. The result was Citizens Over Corporations, our booklet which provided “A Brief History of Democracy in Ohio and Challenges to Organizing in the Future” (the subtitle, per Richard’s suggestion). He was an invaluable asset in the writing, framing and tone. The booklet led to our documentary, CorpOrNation, the Story of Citizens and Corporations in Ohio. As Richard said time and again, the issue isn’t about corporations. It’s about democracy. It’s about us. I was forever in awe once I became involved with POCLAD by his overall intellect, discernment and focus.

On a very personal note, after my wife suddenly passed away in 2000, Richard’s hand written letter and subsequent notes, Buddhist calendar and phone calls were among the most cherished communications I received from anyone — always inquiring about my welfare and my daughter’s. Beneath his exterior crustiness was a deeply caring soul.

Richard was a planter. All his seeds did not sprout in quite the democratic ways he completely approved. Yet time will tell how far and deep the current anti corporate personhood movement extends. Transcending it to envelop real self-governance with compassion for all living things is where I believe Richard would want it to travel.

So should we. For the real barriers to this are not chartered incorporated business entities. They’re us.

Since Democrats and Republicans on the congressional supercommittee, including Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, were unable to find common ground on spending reductions and tax increases to reduce the debt, Congress should now focus on an arena where both Democrats and Republicans might agree — monetary reform.

Passage of the National Emergency Employment Defense (NEED) Act, H.R. 2990, would eliminate the national debt by authorizing the government to print U.S. dollars (different from the Federal Reserve notes in our wallets) to pay off U.S. Treasury bonds, bills and notes.

Virtually all of our nation’s money is currently created by banking corporations as debt to people, businesses and governments, to be paid back with interest that over time often becomes an inflationary debt trap.

Democratic Presidents Jefferson and Jackson felt the people, not banks, should create our own money, while Republican President Lincoln created debt-free public money (greenbacks) in an effort to preserve the Union. The U.S. Constitution empowers the government to coin money.

Canadian economist William Hixson has said, “The very idea of a government that can create money for itself, allowing banks to create money that the government then borrows, and pays interest on, is so preposterous that it staggers the imagination.”

Congressional passage of the NEED Act would create a policy most people believe has existed since the nation’s founding — creation and issuance of U.S. money — which is both progressive and conservative.

Since Democrats and Republicans on the congressional supercommittee, including Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, are having difficulty finding common ground on spending reductions and tax increases to reduce the debt, they should focus on an arena where both might agree– monetary reform.

Virtually all of our nation’s money is currently created by banking corporations as debt to people, businesses and governments — to be paid back with interest that over time often becomes an inflationary debt trap.

Democratic Presidents Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson felt “we the people,” not banks, should create our own money, while Republican President Abraham Lincoln created public money (greenbacks) to preserve the union. The U.S. Constitution empowers the government to coin money.

Portman and his supercommittee colleagues should recommend a policy to eliminate our national debt that most people already believe has existed since the nation’s founding — a policy to democratize the U.S. monetary system that is both progressive and conservative.

1944 – BIRTH OF DICK DURBIN, US SENATOR, ILLINOIS “And the banks — hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created — are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place.” Interview on WJJG 1530 AM’s “Mornings with Ray Hanania,” April 2009

NOVEMBER 22

1879 – BIRTH of RALPH HAWTREY, FORMER SECRETARY OF TREASURY, ENGLAND“Banks lend by creating credit. They create the means of payment out of nothing.”

NOVEMBER 23

1910 – JEKYLL ISLAND MEETING TO PLAN FOR US PRIVATE CENTRAL BANKAttending this secret meeting were US Senator Nelson Aldrich; A. Piatt Andrew, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury; Frank Vanderlip, president of the National City Bank of New York; Henry P. Davison, senior partner of J.P. Morgan Company; D. Norton, president of the Morgan-dominated First National Bank of New York; Benjamin Strong (a lieutenant of J.P. Morgan); and Paul Warburg, connected to the banking house of Kuhn, Loeb. The meeting would lead to the Aldrich bill, which eventually led to the Federal Reserve Act, passed in 1913.

NOVEMBER 25

1874 – GREENBACK PARTY FOUNDEDThe Greenback Party was founded on this day at a convention in Indianapolis. Many of its members were farmers hurt by the financial Panic of 1873 (also known as the “Crime of ‘73”). The party supported “Greenback” paper money that was issued and spent into circulation by the Lincoln administration. They opposed all money systems backed by any precious metal, believing that those who owned gold or silver (banks and corporations) would possess the power to define the value of products and labor. Government control of the US money system would also ensure sufficient quantity of money was in circulation to help small businesses and farmers. Twenty one independent congressmen, mostly Greenbackers, were elected in 1878.

————–Why this calendar? Many people have questions about the root causes of our economic problems. Some questions involve money, banks and debt. How is money created? Why do banks control its quantity? How has the money system been used to liberate (not often) and oppress (most often) us? And how can the money system be “democratized” to rebuild our economy and society, create jobs and reduce debt?Our goal is to inform, intrigue and inspire through bite size weekly postings listing important events and quotes from prominent individuals (both past and present) on money, banking and how the money system can help people and the planet. We hope the sharing of bits of buried history will illuminate monetary and banking issues and empower you with others to create real economic and political justice.This calendar is a project of the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee. Adele Looney, Phyllis Titus, Donna Schall, Leah Davis, Alice Francini and Greg Coleridge helped in its development.Please forward this to others and encourage them to subscribe. To subscribe/unsubscribe or to comment on any entry, contact monetarycalendar@yahoo.com For more information, visit http://www.afsc.net/economiccrisis.html